Saturday, March 7, 2015

New
And Improved:
The crude oil tankers filled with crude from the Bakken shale that
went off the rails and exploded in Galena, IL had been retrofitted to
meet higher safety standards. Worked well. Good
news:
Unemployment at 5.5% is at its lowest in 7 years. The bad news is
that the labor force participation rate is at
its lowest ever. The claim is that 5.5% is “full employment”.
Funny, I remember when full employment was 4% or less. But then I'm
old and remember when our balance of payments was positive, unions
were strong and neither supply side economics nor globalization had
been foisted on us.

Right-To-Freeload:
Wisconsin is about to become the
25th
state to try to kill unions by strangling them financially with
so-called right to work laws that encourage workers to freeload off
the efforts of union members without paying union dues. I say, fine,
as long as those who do not pay dues do not get to enjoy the fruits
the dues-paying members of unions have won: the 8 hour day, overtime
pay, health insurance, workers compensation, minimum wage, health and
safety inspections... Because
freeloading is an American tradition. Gone:
There are now drones small enough to fit in the palm of your hand,
and within a couple of years they'll be thought of as “medium”
while the bumble bee sized ones put an end to the quaint pretense of
personal privacy.

Junkyard
Dogs:
The Justice Department is coming down hard on Democratic Senator
Robert Mendez of New Jersey (also see: Chrisite, Gov.) for various
criminal corruption charges. Boy, he must have pissed off somebody
real important, in that enriching yourself and your friends seems to
be the only motive for going into politics these
days. Poaching:
The CIA says it is going to stop starting wars and overthrowing
governments and concentrate more on “cyber ops”. The NSA has
filed an injunction, claiming squatter's rights.

High
and Dry:
Ski resorts in the California mountains are resorting to man-made
snow this winter,
because the snowpack is only 25% of the historical average. And the
snow that's not there now won't be there to melt in the spring and
turn into water. And the drought goes on.

Shifty
Christie:
First, New Jersey, under Christie's tender attentions, settles an
$8.9 billion environmental damage suit with ExxonMobil for a
paltry $225 million, now Christie plans to shift that money from
environmental remediation of the wetlands ExxonMobil destroyed to the
general budget to cover corporate tax breaks.

War
On Women:
WV Republicans voted to override the governor's veto and pass a ban
on abortion after the 20th
week.
Republicans
in CO want the law to consider using an IUD a form of abortion,
punishable
by death or dismemberment.
Elsewhere, Republican study groups are meeting to determine how many
angels should be permitted to dance on the head of a contraceptive.

Chicken/Egg?
It's the egg. “If a kangaroo laid an egg from which an ostrich
hatched, that would surely be an ostrich egg, not a kangaroo egg. By
this reasoning, the first chicken did indeed come from a chicken egg,
even though that egg didn't come from chickens."

"Ski resorts in the California mountains are resorting to man-made snow this winter, because the snowpack is only 25% of the historical average. And the snow that's not there now won't be there to melt in the spring and turn into water"

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.